After this game, all I hear about is the hit that had everybody gasping as soon as it happened. When Methot ran into Henrik Sedin from behind, sending him teeth first into the boards. Sedin was a little slow to get up, but eventually made his way to the bench. Turns out that he hurt his knee more than anything, which is better than the alternative in my opinion. The NHL wouldn't want another Crosby situation on it's hands. Aside from the hit and the lack of response by the Canucks, Vancouver looked only so-so.
The first period we got spanked. End of story. Schneider is the only reason we were even alive after 20 minutes - who by the way, is making a very strong case for a starting position, Schneider is. About half way through the second is when the Canucks really started to play hockey. Schneider let in that one stinker, a wrap around which beat him short side between his skate and the post. You can blame it on the gigantic pads goalies have now, which wouldn't allow him to squeeze his skate against the post, or you can blame it on Bieksa who decided to leave his man and double team Nash in the corner (there's a joke in there somewhere).Sticking with the goalie theme, Schneider redeemed himself after stopping a penalty shot in the third which resulted because of one of Tanev's rare mistakes. Turns out he's human after all.
Players who stuck out to me in the game from Vancouver would have to be Hodgson and Ballard. Hodgson because he was the only person on the second line who had a pulse. Ballard, because he flashed his patented smooth skating and speed by shooting up the middle with the puck, going around two defenceman and beating them to his rebound. If he had scored on that play, I'm sure we would be hearing the chants of "Norris, Norris" faintly in the background from the band wagon fans in Vancouver.
Players from Columbus, Methot because of his hit, and Clitsome, because of his ridiculous name. If you said his name while talking to a woman, you'd probably be slapped. Not only that, but he was everywhere. I think he assisted both of the Blue Jackets goals and every time the camera would zoom into a scrum or anything, there he was! Clitsome! He's just lucky his parents were nice and named him Grant instead of Harry or Rubyer...
We didn't really deserve to win the game, but we are definitely more skilled than Columbus is, despite them adding Jeff Carter. So I guess the best team won this one, but up until the third period, the Blue Jackets definitely wanted it more.
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